Black Siren's Song
by Bree-2006
Summary: Eight months after their broken engagement, Oliver and Felicity are trying to move on from one another, and failing miserably. As they slowly make their way back to each other, a new problem arises. Her name is Black Siren, and she wants this Earth's Oliver Queen. (Olicity endgame. Don't like it, don't read it. I won't be changing my mind.)
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note:** I don't know what I am doing. I haven't written a fic in 6 years, but I couldn't get this idea out of my head. I have no beta, so if you someone out there would like to help a girl out, I'll be eternally grateful.

Anyway, I'm pretty proud of this so far. Again, keep in mind that I haven't written anything other than research papers in 6 years. When I first started posting on I was 13 years old. I am now 28.

My plan for this is to be 6ish chapters.

Thanks for reading!

Summary:

Eight months after their broken engagement, Oliver and Felicity are trying to move on from one another, and failing miserably. Felicity is dating and Oliver is giving her space while he tries to navigate being the mayor of a city still healing from the attack by Damian Darhk and the vigilante who watches over the city at night. As they slowly make their way back to each other, a new problem arises. Her name is Black Siren. Dinah Laurel Lance of Earth 2 is looking for the doppelgänger of the man she lost on the Gambit all those years ago, and will stop at nothing to find him. Her mission: to reclaim what she feels is rightfully hers - her lost love, the man whose death propelled her into becoming The Black Siren.

Black Siren's Song - Chapter 1

She was actually doing it.

Here she was, dressed in her favorite dress, the red, knee-length one with the slit that went to her mid-thigh, sitting across from her date for the evening. In the eight months that she had been a single woman, she hadn't gone as far as this. Casually flirting with the opposite sex? Definitely. Sitting across from one and making small talk? Yeah, that hadn't happened since you-know-who.

In all honesty, her date was a pretty good catch. Jake Malone, who up until tonight she had fondly called Detective "Too Good Looking to be Real" Malone, was at least 6 ft tall, with an impeccable smile that reached his eyes in a way that made her cheeks flush. He was every part the gentleman she expected, and she had immediately found herself drawn to him.

He talks animatedly about his fairly new career within the Star City Police Department. He's an old beat cop from Steel City who was looking for a fresh start after surviving a close call that took the life of his partner and dear friend. Seeing the turmoil Star City had been in, and hearing about the need for detectives within the SCPD force, he applied for the position, getting it immediately. She hadn't had the heart to tell him that detectives within the SCPD didn't tend to stick around long and that the SCPD was probably happy with whoever they could get at the moment. She didn't think that would have gone over well on the first date.

Her thoughts go back to when she first met this guy. In the five months since Damian Darhks attack on Star City, her attempts to regain control of Palmer Tech have all but failed. Instead, she'd decided to turn her focus to making a name for herself by opening her own business, Smoak Incorporated. With Walter Steel backing her financially, she'd managed to create her little start up company in Oliver's old campaign office, as he'd since moved on to an office in City Hall. She tells herself that working in Oliver's old office is practical considering that the bunker is right underneath it. That it makes explaining why she's there late at night easy, but part of her knows that she has trouble letting go of the real reason why the office is important to her.

While moving her things in, there had been a break in in the middle of the night. The irony is not lost on Felicity Smoak. Not only did she beat herself up for not having the security system up and running first thing, but she also had a hard time believing that the Green Arrow hadn't realized there was a burglar right above him.

Said burglar had made off with some pretty expensive computer parts, and she had decided immediately to go the legal route, instead of involving her big green friend. She reported the theft to the SCPD and in walked Detective "Too Good Looking to be Real" Malone. After taking her statement, and her following up sporadically with phone calls and random visits to his office at the SCPD headquarters, (which may or may not have included a little flirting on her part to get the case sped up a little), her flirting got her an invitation to dinner, not a closed case.

And here they are, having dinner at a fancy restaurant in downtown Star City.

As Detective "Too Good Looking to be Real" continues to talk, Felicity finds herself feeling out of sorts. Dating never did come easy for her, and since her break up with you-know-who 8 months ago, she hadn't even seriously considered what it would be like to date again. But she had found herself agreeing to this date before her mind had caught up with her mouth, and now she's sitting here trying to move on with someone new, even if nothing more came from tonight than a hug or kiss on the cheek.

It had been too long since she had had either one.

Suddenly, guilt worms its way into her subconscious. It's a Friday night. The busiest night of the week for the green vigilante who relies on her to be that voice in his ear, guiding his way through hostile territory. Here she is on a date, while he's probably sharpening his arrows or mending tears in his suit in preparation for the night of patrolling ahead of him. Things between the two of them are by no means what they used to be, but Green Arrow business is still important to her, and she hopes above all else that he is careful tonight without her there.

She sighs, but her date takes no notice as he continues to talk about some of the people he's gotten close to on the force. Felicity's mind wanders back to her vigilante, or the vigilante (he's definitely not hers, and she doesn't even know where that came from). Since ending their engagement, things between them are strained in a way she didn't think they ever would be. They're friendly, of course, but there's this indestructible wall between them. Oliver is very careful around her, never asking too many questions, always giving her a ton of space, maybe more than she would like him to. She hasn't really felt this far away from him in, well, ever.

Rebuilding the bunker had been tough with this distance between them. Before she had decided to create her own company, she would come in early during the day while he was at City Hall, and leave before he got there in the evening after he left the office. She would come back late to man the coms, but other than this brief interaction that was really all business, their everyday communication was stunted.

Now that she's working right above the bunker, she's there all the time, oftentimes bringing him dinner. If he eats with her, it's almost always in silence. If he doesn't she, more than not, finds the food she brought him in the fridge untouched the next day. That thought upsets her more than anything. She knows that he's retracting into himself again, one of his default settings. She's come to the conclusion that there is no changing him and his ways, and she has come to terms with the fact that their romantic relationship failed for this exact reason.

Detective "Too Good to be Real" is staring at her expectantly, and Felicity realizes she has no idea what he had been talking about. Feeling her cheeks burn in embarrassment, she sticks her spoon in the crème brûlée dessert she had ordered and smiles sweetly as she takes a bite.

Thankfully, her date lets it go.

As the date concludes and they walk slowly out of the restaurant, Felicity can't help noticing that he puts his hand on her lower back, and her thoughts immediately go to all the times that Oliver had done the same. She realizes at that moment, as her and Detective "Too Good Looking to be Real" walk out of the restaurant, that the majority of this date was spent with her thinking about her ex fiancé. She feels guilt creep up again, this time for an entirely different reason than leaving her ex to patrol the city on his own. She realizes that maybe she wasn't quite as ready to move on as she initially thought, and hopes that this guy doesn't ask her for a second date.

As her date opens his car door to let her in, a figure dressed in green leather and wielding a bow and arrow watches from his perch on the apartment building across the street from the restaurant. Felicity and her date drive off in the direction of her home.

The weekend passes in a blur for one Oliver Queen. On Monday he sits in his office at City Hall with a stack of papers ten inches tall awaiting his signatures. Unfortunately, he's lost all interest in signing them. His mind wanders to Felicity and what he had seen only a few days before. Although he's seen her since, once on both Saturday and Sunday prior to his patrols, and had her voice on the com in his ear on both nights, he can't help but feel like his chances to win her back are over. She's moved on, and he's still sitting here pining over her.

He feels like a fool. He honestly believed that space was what she needed, so he gave that to her, although it pained him to distance himself from her so much. He thought that giving her what she wanted would be the catalyst for her to give him another chance, to see that he was trying to be a better man, one she deserved. Instead, it had done the opposite. The space he had created had caused a cavern so wide that there was no possible way for him to traverse it.

A knock at the door brings him back to the present, and he answers with what he hopes doesn't sound like too solemn of a "come in". He is greeted warmly by his visitor, and stands politely to offer the woman before him the seat across from him at his desk. Kate Spencer, Star City's new District Attorney, smiles as she does as instructed and sits to speak with the mayor of the city she has sworn to protect.

"DA Spencer, what brings you here?" Oliver asks with a genuine smile on his face. Truth be told, he likes the woman who has taken up Laurel's legal mantel. The petite woman, not much older than himself, with striking blue eyes and jet-black hair, is more than just a pretty face, she's got grit. She has a willingness to go above and beyond to get to the truth, and she doesn't scare easily. It's something Oliver can respect.

She pushes forward a manila folder with the title "Hive Trial" written in black ink. Oliver immediately sits up in his chair and opens to folder to examine its contents. He hears her speak as he begins to read the report she has handed him, one that contains all of the financial information specific to Star City's restoration, the restoration needed because of the devastation caused by Damian Darhk and his men.

"In four days time we will be in Central City persecuting the remaining members of Hive. I know that moving the case outside of Star City is not ideal, but their lawyers are hoping that a change of venue will help their case, as most people in Star City are biased. I just want to make sure that you will be there to testify to the devastation that Hive has caused." Oliver looks at her with all seriousness and determination evident in his eyes.

"Of course. The city is still reeling from what Damian Darhk and his followers did. The damage and loss of lives is something I don't see this city healing from for decades. This information needs to be made public." DA Spencer nods her head in understanding.

"We have the few survivors from Havenrock issuing a statement as well. With your testimony and their statement, we can put these murderers away for a very long time, if not forever."

"Good."

"In the meantime, the city needs to know that you will do whatever it takes to see justice served. I'm very grateful for your assistance with this case, Mayor Queen, and I am sure the city is thankful for it too. What time can I expect you to arrive in Central City? I'd like to meet with you to go over your testimony before you take the stand."

Oliver takes a moment to look at the clock. He had planned to leave first thing in the morning on Wednesday to get there by lunch, the drive being a few hours if he didn't hit traffic. He schedules to meet with her right after lunch on Wednesday, which just so happens to be the day before the actual trial, and the two conclude their brief meeting.

Standing up and shaking Oliver's hand, the new DA leaves the room, but not before she gives the mayor a gentle smile and small wave goodbye, causing Oliver to smile in return. The rest of the mayor's day is uneventful, as he returns to signing paperwork that he really doesn't want to sign.

That night in the bunker, things run as they always do. Felicity arrives with dinner, but Oliver casually opts out, explaining to her that he had had a late lunch and wasn't hungry. If he noticed how Felicity's shoulders slump a bit, he acts as if he hadn't, and Felicity lets it go, finishing her dinner alone and then heading over to her base of computers so that she could get a head start on their mission for the night.

When Oliver goes out in the suit that night, he is short with her, and chatter over the coms is nonexistent. They work in silence, Felicity only hearing the occasional arrow release, scrape, and grunt. It's a silence that feels far more awkward than she's used to, and when Felicity can no longer handle the silence, she pipes up.

"Are you okay? You seem upset about something. I mean, you've seemed upset about something for weeks now, more so days, but you're not really giving me much to go on here. Is it work? Do you want to talk about it?" On the other side of the line, Oliver tries to hold in his sigh. He had hoped she wouldn't have commented on the mood he had been in. Truthfully, it had been hard to be in the same room with her since he stumbled upon her and her date the other night. Instead, he grumbled out a quick "I'm fine", and with hopes that she takes the hint and quits asking questions.

She hadn't taken the hint.

"You just seem upset about something. You definitely do not seem fine. Maybe I can help you with it. Why don't you…"

"I'm fine, Felicity, just drop it." He grounds out and immediately regrets it. Her brief sigh at the end of the line is indication that she's completely on to him, but surprisingly she, again, lets it go.

When the night is over, the mission a success, and a known drug dealer is brought in to the SCPD to be charged with solicitation of illegal drugs, he returns to find the bunker shrouded in complete darkness, and Felicity long gone.

He finally releases the heavy sigh that he'd been holding since their bickering on the coms, and collapses bonelessly into her chair at her station, his guilt for what transpired between them as prominent as ever. After stewing over it for a few minutes, he opts to take a shower and then decides that the bunker is where he plans to sleep tonight. The large house in Star City suburbia with light blue shutters, innate furniture, and sprawling gardens Felicity would have loved, just didn't feel much like home, even if Star City mayors had resided there for decades. At least here he could still smell her perfume, floral and so uniquely her, the same one she had purchased on their trip to Bali over a year ago. If that's the thought he had as he fell asleep on the twin bed in the lower level of the bunker, well, only he would know it.

Four hundred miles north of Star City, a woman sits in a cell in the lower levels of Star Labs. Only a month ago the woman had been free, resorting to petty theft to get by. Now, she sat in her cell with nothing but her thoughts and the occasional rip from the woman in the cell next to her. Pam, or Mouse, as her boyfriend lovingly calls her, had been caught trying to steal a rare diamond from the Central City Museum. How she ended up in a pipeline with villains of the meta kind, while she was not (a meta), she didn't know, but she was sure this went against every legal right she had.

The woman in the cell next to her was a frightening stoic woman. Dinah Laurel Lance of Earth 2, the Black Siren, was incredibly cold and calculating. Little Mouse had listened in on the various plans that Black Siren had conjured up to get out of the mess they were in, most of which ending in pulling Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow apart limb by limb. Although none of the plans had worked, it wasn't for a lack of trying.

Mouse leaned against the side of her cell, absentmindedly tossing a blue bouncy ball to the other side and then catching it when it was within her reach. After a few minutes Black Siren groaned, and shot Mouse a heated look.

"Stop doing that!"

Mouse jumped a little at her neighbor's sudden outburst. She quickly put the ball in her pocket, placing her hands up in what she hoped would resemble a surrender.

"Ohhhhkay, okay!"

Black Siren, her black lipstick perfectly applied and her skin-tight leather leaving little to the imagination, looked over at her neighbor. Little Mouse, five feet tall with beady little eyes and a button nose, had her short brown hair swept back in the tiniest of ponytails. Mouse faced Black Siren and stretched her arms above her head.

"So what's the escape plan for today, BS? I'm getting antsy." Black Siren rolled her brown eyes and shot Mouse a venomous look.

"I told you not to call me that."

Mouse smiled.

Her friendship, if she can really call it that, with Black Siren is definitely different. Being around such a strong and intimidating woman was not exactly part of her plan when she decided to rob that museum. But she kind of likes being around Earth 2 Dinah Laurel Lance. She makes Mouse feel empowered, womanly, and downright badass. If Black Siren could be her friend, then maybe she was cooler than she thought she was.

Black Siren crosses her arms over her chest and looks at Mouse in all seriousness.

"I'll think of something. There has to be a way out of here, and when we're out, you, me, and that idiot boyfriend of yours are taking back what is rightfully ours."

Mouse's eyebrows crinkled at the mention of her loving boyfriend.

"Leave Giz and me out of your plan for world domination. I just want to get out of here and hightail it out of this city. I'm sure Giz is working on a way to get me out of here as we speak."

"I'm sure he is." Black Siren replied sarcastically. Mouse found herself frustrated by her neighbor's lack of trust in her boyfriend.

"He is!"

"Right."

"No, really!"

"I said sure."

"Gahhhh!"

As Mouse's frustration with Black Siren began to surmount, the lights that surrounded them all shut off and plunged them into darkness. Without warning, a voice projected through the speakers on the wall of their cell. Black Siren found herself immediately on edge.

"Did you miss me, Babe?" the shrill male voice of their savior chimed.

In the cell next to her, Mouse immediately began to jump up and down in her cell as the voice of her sweet Giz fizzled through the speakers.

She made it a point to yell an "I told you so" to BS, who blew a puff of air indignantly as a response. Within moments, Mouse's cell door is open and she's preparing to run down the hallway. Black Siren yells out to her before she can make her escape.

"Hey! You can't leave me here! We planned to get out of here together!"

Truth be told, Dinah Laurel Lance of Earth 2, the Black Siren, means very little to Mouse in this moment, but she absolutely has a point. Mouse may be a thief, but other than that discretion, a discretion that she only takes part in because she needs money to live, she's a fairly honest person. She stomps her foot petulantly because she really would rather be out of here by now, but reaches up to enter the code she's seen Cisco enter countless times when serving them their meals. The door to Black Siren's cell opens, and the impressive woman walks through it, a satisfied smile on her face. The two take off in the direction of the exit, the other metas locked up in the cells around them yelling and banging on their cells for the two of them to release them also. Mouse and Black Siren, smelling freedom and knowing what lies outside of the doors, ignore them and make their way out of Star Labs.

Later, Mouse would regret letting Black Siren out of her cell, but for right now, she is just happy to be free.

The two of them meet Giz outside the lab in a get away car. Giz, in his whole 5 ft 5 inches with nerdy tech glasses and freckles gracing his cheeks, may not be very menacing, but his mind is sharp and Mouse is more than excited to see his face after 32 days in a cell.

They jump into the car and drive off to a safe house that Giz had rigged up to keep them from watchful eyes. He's a bit confused as to the extra person his girlfriend brings along with her, especially because the woman is silent and a bit too scary looking for his tastes, but he says nothing, too focused on reuniting with his girlfriend and making the necessary plans to ensure that they aren't caught.

When they arrive at the safe house, Mouse, after sufficiently greeting her boyfriend and while still straddling his lap, asks how he did it.

"I broke into their servers, turned off their alarms, hacked into their speaker system, opened your cell door, and let you out. It wasn't easy, but it worked."

Mouse smiled at her marvel of a man. "You are so brilliant, my love!" All the while, Black Siren watches in silence and with a twinge of disgust at their corny endearments.

As the night progresses, Mouse and Giz move on to the only bedroom in the dank apartment that is serving as their safe house, and Black Siren starts making plans to get out of her predicament as soon as she can. Moving to the other side of the room, she turns on the TV only to be bombarded with the photo of a man she hadn't seen in nearly ten years.

"Mayor Oliver Queen of Star City will be testifying during the trial of the remaining members of Hive. The case, which was moved to Central City in an effort to curve judicial bias, is still high profile. Adding Mayor Queen's testimony makes it even more so…"

Dinah Laurel Lance, the woman underneath all of the leather and fishnet, stares at the face of the man she considered her first love; the man who she lost ten years ago when he stepped on a yacht with his father for a business trip. After his death, something broke within her. It was almost as if her heart turned to ice at the very moment she had learned of his death. It was his death that led to her ascension into the Black Siren and she swore to herself that she would never be with another man, never fall in love with one. For ten years she succeeded, but as she looks at this man who shares so much with the one she lost, although ten years older, the same blue eyes and dirty blonde hair stare back at her on the television screen, and she feels her pulse quicken.

She needs to reclaim what is rightfully hers.

The Black Siren suddenly has a new mission,

She needs to find this Earth's Oliver Queen and make him hers. And if anyone gets in her way, she'll destroy them, just like her true love's death destroyed her.


	2. Chapter 2

I started writing this with a totally different outcome and scrapped it in favor of this rewrite.

I was pretty offended by how many messages I received asking me to put Oliver with Black Siren. I thought I had made it pretty clear that I am a HARDCORE OLICITY shipper. But I guess not, so here it is:

I SHIP OLICITY WITH EVERY BONE IN MY BODY AND THEY WILL ALWAYS BE TOGETHER IN THE SHOW AND IN THIS STORY SO GTFO IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT.

This is my story. I'll write it the way I want to and it'll NEVER be LAURIVER. I am so ANTI LAURIVER IT'S CRAZY.

However, Earth 2 Laullie might make an appearance.

BTW: I am not Anti Laurel (Although I am Anti Laurel Fans because MOST are batshit crazy and hate on my girl Felicity). So don't expect Laurel hate in this story. My ultimate goal is to make her totally badass.

Thanks for the reviews! This one goes out to my homie ThSamarai who's been following my fics forever! Life is good! Hope you are well!

Follow me on Tumblr:

Bree-2006

* * *

Felicity Smoak was exhausted.

After what was a sleepless night, she had reluctantly pulled herself out of bed and prepared for her day at the Smoak Industries. Having two employees on her payroll, Curtis and herself, made for a relatively easy day, which made her feel a little bit better about her lack of sleep. What she didn't feel better about, was the reason for her sleepless night.

Something was a going on with Oliver that was seriously gnawing at her. He had been short with her for weeks at this point, but last night's total shutdown on the coms was a whole new level of standoffish, even for him.

Sure, her and Oliver we no longer together, but they had been best friends way before romantic feelings became involved. She had steadfastly believed that they could return to their friendship, but it was starting to look like that wasn't going to be the case with them. That particular thought had Felicity up all night.

Her mind kept going to the same question. Could she let him go completely? After the fake wedding that was meant to catch Cupid, she had sworn to herself that she would leave the team, for good. She had planned to make her life Oliver free. And for a week she had done so. Until she had received the phone call about Laurel. Seeing him standing there so broken at the hospital had been more soul-crushing than she had been prepared for, and then she had realized that their lives were far too intertwined and there was no way she would be letting him go completely.

But over the last few weeks, mostly yesterday, it had seemed like he had wanted that separation. Like he was no longer happy having her around the bunker and in his ear. It was the first time she had understood just how hurt he had been when she had done that same to him all those months ago.

And she had absolutely hated it.

He was her best friend, and she wasn't going to let him go that easily ever again.

An hour after arriving at the office and getting to work on a prototype she had been working on for several weeks, her cellphone rings. Caitlin Snow, on the other end, gives her an enthusiastic hello and Felicity can't help but smile at the cheeriness in her friend's voice.

"Hey Cait, what's up? I'm surprised you are up this early."

Caitlin, 400 miles away in Central City, sighs into the phone and Felicity determines immediately that this isn't a social call. Caitlin usually doesn't call Felicity during the day. Typically, it's an occasional text or phone call to chat late at night.

"We had a breakout last night." Cait reveals. The cheeriness from earlier gone.

Felicity is immediately on edge.

"Who was it?" She asks cautiously.

"There were three, but the one I thought you should know about is Black Siren."

Felicity scratches her head. A wrinkle appearing between her eyebrows.

"Like Laurel Lance Earth 2 Black Siren?" She asks.

"That's the one."

Felicity, a little surprised, pulls her cell phone away from her ear a few inches and takes a seat at her desk to wrap her mind around it all. Of course she had been made aware of Laurel's doppelganger months before. Caitlin hadn't wanted her and Oliver to be surprised when they saw Laurel's face on TV being taken in by the Flash for helping Zoom destroy Central City. She still was a little unnerved by the idea that Black Siren had escaped from Star Labs, although she wasn't sure why it bothered her so much. She knew that Barry would handle it quickly and it would be like the escape never happened.

Felicity put the phone back to her ear. She listened as Caitlin explained how the escape had all gone down, based on what little video they had. Felicity, appalled by the ease in which the assailants were able to escape, formulated a plan.

"How about I come down and amp up the security software so this doesn't happen again?" Felicity offers. It had been a while since she had gone down to visit her dear Central City friends. In truth, a nice break from her reality seemed like just what the doctor ordered. Caitlin agrees immediately.

"Cisco won't be happy about you coming down and taking over, but it's pretty obvious that the hacker that broke them out is much more skilled than he is."

"But not more skilled than me." Felicity pipes and smiles into the phone while Caitlin giggles in response.

"Hacking _is_ your superpower. When can we expect you?" Caitlin asks. Felicity thinks about it for a minute. She's not really a long distance driver, but the train is always a viable option. She'd have to check departure times and then get back to Caitlin.

Then an idea forms. One she is sure is TERRIBLE, but she's all for killing two birds with one stone.

"I can see if I can bum a ride off of Oliver tomorrow morning. He's going down to Central City for the Hive trial." Caitlin hums on the other side of the line. Felicity isn't sure if it's a hum of approval or a hum of confusion. Caitlin is more than aware of the issues between the two.

"Oh, that's right. I'll let Cisco and Barry know that you're coming down." Caitlin gives nothing away and so Felicity smiles on her end, excited about seeing her friends for the first time in months.

"Thanks Cait! I'll see you then."

"See you tomorrow."

When Felicity hangs up she takes a moment to consider her plan to ride with Oliver to Central City. She's aware that the ride can go one of two ways, and that thought makes her very nervous. Being in a confined space together for several hours seems like a bad idea, and he certainly won't like that she's just decided to tag along. But she decides that this car ride to Central City is the perfect opportunity to talk to Oliver about their current status - if he agrees to the ride, that is.

That night Felicity waits until their mission for the night is over. As Oliver changes out of his Green Arrow suit and prepares to leave for the night, Felicity seizes her opportunity. She catches him off guard when she calls for him to join her at her station.

He walks over to her slowly. And Felicity takes that moment to begin talking.

"I spoke to Caitlin this morning. There was a break out of Star Labs. It's not good."

Oliver, who stood stoically at her desk, nods for her to continue.

"There were three, but the one she wanted us to know about was Black Siren—"

"Black Siren escaped?" He replies, his pupils dilating at the mention of the woman who shares the face of a woman he once loved. Felicity nods her head in response. Oliver takes a deep breath and crosses his arms over his broad chest. The gray Henley he wears lifts up a bit and Felicity has to fight the urge to look at the little bit of skin he is showing. As she looks up at his face, she notes that he seems a bit tense, but it's not unusual to see him like this nowadays. She gives him her signature smile, in hopes to break the tension.

"I'm sure Barry will catch her and the other escapees soon. In the meantime, I need to go down there to beef up their security. Apparently some guy was able to hack into the servers and turn off all the alarms." Oliver gives a brief hum of acknowledgement; his arms still crossed over his chest.

"I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if I rode along with you tomorrow, a kill two birds with one stone kind of deal?"

Felicity watches as the muscle in his cheek flinches, and the pang in her heart that manifests because of it catches her off guard.

"Wouldn't you rather take the train?" He asks cautiously. Felicity puts up her hand and makes a waving motion.

"Nonsense. You're already going. I can keep you company!" Her smile falters a bit as she sees the look of confusion in his eyes.

Deep down Oliver knows how bad of an idea this is, driving _several_ hours with the woman he can't seem to let go of, hoping that he doesn't slip up and say something he might regret later. But the way she's looking at him, her blue eyes behind her glasses almost pleading with him to agree, he shoves down his concern and huffs out a sigh.

"Okay, I'll pick you up at 8am. We'll be coming back the day after the trial. I have some other business to take care of in Central City while we are there." The smile that Felicity gives him in return sends his pulse racing. He takes a calming breath before bidding her good night and heading to the elevator so that he can go to his house outside the city.

That night, as he packs his things for the long few days ahead, he can't help but think about the woman who still, after all this time, owns his heart. As nervous as he might be to spend so many hours on the drive with her, he takes a second to remind himself that they've done this before – driven for hours together. Of course, when they had last done it, on their trip to the underground casino to meet Esrin Fortuna, they were in a better place in their relationship than they were now (even if barely). Besides, Laurel's death was at the forefront of their minds at that time. They were still so fixated on losing their dear friend, that most of the ride had been spent talking fondly of her.

What would they talk about this time?

As he closed his suitcase and zipped it up, he sat on the edge of his bed and folded his head in his hands. Whatever happened on the ride to Central City tomorrow, he just hoped it wouldn't make things worse between them.

* * *

Felicity woke up to her phone alarm at 6am. When Oliver showed up at her apartment at 7:53, she was just sitting down to her second cup of coffee.

"Would you like some? I made enough for both of us."

Oliver stood rigidly in the doorway. Stuck between telling her he would wait for her in the car, and taking a look around.

He had never been in her new place. Having to downsize because of the cost to own her own business, Felicity and Oliver had decided to let the loft go, and she had found what she had happily stated was _"a cozy little apartment downtown that's less than a third of what the loft was costing her"._ He didn't put up a fight, of course, the loft had long since stopped being a home to him anyway.

But standing there in the doorway, he was curious. And as he agreed to some coffee, earning him a stunning smile from Felicity, he took a look around. Noting that the space was certainly all Felicity.

He held back a smile as he peeked at one of her many bookshelves. He saw pictures of all their friends displayed proudly for guests to see, and this time he couldn't bite back his smile. He continued to look at the various photos, when one caught his eye and made him pause. Perched on a bookshelf was a picture of the two of them in Bali, his arms around her from behind, the beautiful water of the Indonesian sea behind them. He remembered that day vividly – how they had spent hours exploring the beaches and little shops on the coast, how they had returned to their little bungalow and explored each other. The pang in his heart that had resided there for 8 months intensified.

Felicity came out of her kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in her hands, fixed exactly how she knew he liked it. As she silently approached, she noted how his eyes wavered over an old photo of them in Bali. Truthfully, it was her favorite one of them all, and she hadn't had the heart to get rid of it.

Oliver barely registered her voice as she walked up beside him to hand him his drink.

"I couldn't get rid of that one. I hope you don't mind that it's there. I figured we're still friends right? Friends have pictures of each other." At Oliver's small nod, she continues.

"We had such a good time there. It would be a waste to let go of the things we have to remind us of them. I don't regret a single thing we did that summer."

"Even base jumping?" Oliver found himself asking with a small upturn of his lips. He remembered how hard he had worked her to agree to go base jumping with him. He remembered how she had looked when it was over – flushed bright red all over her face, blonde hair in disarray.

Felicity smiled in return of his reply, a faint blush to her cheeks.

"Even base jumping."

Taking a sip of the coffee she had brought him, Oliver looked over her for a moment.

The friend comment had stung a little, but he understood why she said it. He knows that he's been a bad friend as of late. He's been trying to hold himself back from all the things he wants to say to her. He wants to tell her that he's trying to be better for her, that he doesn't want her to move on with someone else. He wants to be utterly selfish and keep her to himself, but he loves her enough to not do these things. He loves her enough to stay away so that she can be happy with someone else. But she keeps reeling him back in and he doesn't know how to cut the line.

After he finishes his coffee, they prepare to get on the road. He grabs her bags as she washes out the mugs in her kitchen. Once all bags are in the trunk of his black Mercedes, he opens the door of the passenger side to let her in, and she slides in eagerly.

Surprisingly, the ride starts off fairly smoothly, with Oliver relinquishing control of the radio. After some time, Felicity attempts some small talk, and Oliver is reminded of how easy it is to fall into the same-old conversations with her. They talk about her new projects at Smoak Tech, and his new bid to create a memorial hospital in the Glades. When a silence finally penetrates their conversation, about three -quarters through the four-hour ride, they're both caught off-guard. Felicity notes that Oliver's shoulders tense, and it takes all the restraint in her to not put her hands there to rub it away.

She sighs.

"So, what's _really_ going on with you Oliver?" She asks, turning to face him and folding her hands in her lap.

She can tell that Oliver is thrown off by the question. Here they had been talking to each other about their lives for hours, but never really addressing the elephant in the room. Felicity fixes him with a look that says _'I know something is up. Out with it already.'_ But Oliver opts to play stupid instead.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about."

Felicity isn't surprised that he goes this route, although she is a little hurt. As she looks at him, she notices that he's got that 'strictly business' air about him, and she's not having it.

"I think you do. You're irritable, moody. For months you've been short with me in every conversation we've had and then the other night you obviously had a rough day and when I was only trying to make you feel better, you shot me down before I could even say a word to you. I'm worried about you."

Had Oliver taken the moment to look over at her, he would have seen the sincerity in her eyes. He hadn't.

"You have nothing to be worried about. I'm fine."

What was once worry manifests into anger, and Felicity crosses her arms over her chest.

"So this is what things are going to be like from now on? You holding it all in and me worry about you? Why is it so hard for you to see that your friends are here to help you carry the burden from what this life throws at you? Instead you retreat back in to yourself and push away everyone who cares."

Oliver, who up to this point had listened to her rant quietly, can no longer hold his tongue. He raises his voice, it becoming deeper and more arrow-like than Felicity had seen in years. She flinches in her seat next to him.

"You are the last person that should lecture me on pushing people away." He angrily states. The war that had waged in his mind over the last 24 hours still fresh. He turns to look at her for the first time, eyes red-rimmed with anger and hurt, and decided that he wouldn't hold back this time.

"You are the one who left first. You agreed that we were in this _for better or worse_ , said you would go anywhere with me, and then you left."

Taking a deep breath and putting his eyes back on the road, Oliver continued. "And I know it's my fault. I lied, I messed it all up, and that's why I've tried so hard to let you go. Seeing you at that restaurant with someone else just cemented it for me. You're done with me, but I'm not there yet with you."

Felicity blinked the tears out of her eyes, salty tracks making their way down her cheeks. As she reaches up to wipe them she speaks.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to see that Oliver, I really am. And I'm sorry for leaving. I think about that decision every day. I just can't be with someone who I can't trust—"

"And that's fine, Felicity, but you have to let me go too. I think that I need a clean break. It's the only way I am going to get over you."

At that thought Felicity's tears stop, fear gripping her. Of the two ways she thought the conversation would go, she wasn't prepared for this. The thought of giving him up completely, as a friend, a partner, was unfathomable, unimaginable, and it was rearing its ugly head again.

"You can't be serious Oliver…" she whispered. Her voice failing her.

"I am." At this he looks at her and his eyes soften at her tears.

"You wanted honesty from me Felicity, and here it is. I love you—still. I wasn't kidding when I said you were my always. But it's clear that it's a one-way deal, and if I plan to have any kind of life without you in the future, I need to cut my ties now. So when we get to Central City, I'll buy you a train ticket home, or ask Barry to get you to your apartment. We will figure out what to do about our night jobs. I hate asking you to give up being Overwatch, so if you want me to, I'll hang up the suit—" at this Felicity can no longer hold in her displeasure.

"This is ridiculous Oliver! I'm not going to listen to this any longer. Pull over and let me out!" Her outburst startles him, but at her interjection, Oliver does as she's asked and pulls over to the side of the road. The heels of his hand immediately go to push against his eyes where a headache has started, and Felicity gets out, slamming the door behind her.

It's at this point where she realizes where they are—the middle of nowhere, a backroad to the city. It certainly isn't safe for a woman to be walking that road alone, but she could care less at that moment. She's so upset that she ditches her bags and begins the long trek to anywhere as long as it's away from him, only noting that she's left her phone behind when she hears another car door open and Oliver stepping out.

"Felicity, stop. Please come back to the car." Oliver yells from where he's standing outside the car door.

She ignores him. It's hot, despite it being early October. And she can already feel the sweat drip down her back. Her tears are still streaming down her face, but are now mixed with sweat and dust. She hears Oliver's footfalls behind her, and she knows he's running towards her. She doesn't quicken her pace, finding herself too numb to do much of anything.

When his hands grab her arms and he spins her around to face him, she loses it. One minutes she's hitting him as hard as she can with her balled up fists on his chest, screaming at him to let her go, the next minute he's holding her tightly as she cries into his shirt. It's a total cliché and sad scene, one that she'll have to rethink later, but they don't move until her sobs become hiccups and she's pretty sure they're both dehydrated from standing in the sun so long.

Oliver breaks the silence.

"I'm sorry." She knows that he's sorry about hurting her with his words, and not for what he said, but she knows that's mostly on her. She knows what he said is the truth, exactly what she's asked for, and as much as it hurts, she knows she needs to be the one to fix what's happening between them. As the idiom goes, the ball is in her court.

She nods her head at his apology as Oliver leans back to push her hair, which is slowly escaping her ponytail, away from her mouth and eyes. His fingers trail along her cheeks to wipe away the tears gathered there, and she looks up at him to see him looking at her in a way that he's refused to look at her with for 8 months.

"I miss you. I miss my best friend." She tells him as she moves her hands to his cheeks, also sporting slight tear tracks. "I'm having a hard time too— moving on. You'll be glad to know that that date I was on the other night was a complete disaster."

"Worse than being blown up before dinner?" Felicity gave a smile at this, the reminder of their first date pulling at her heart strings.

"Much, much worse."

"I'm sorry to hear that." He replies, the small uptick of his lip giving away his real feelings on the matter. Felicity, feeling the burn of the sun on her back, moved her hands into his.

"Can we get back in the car? I'm pretty sure I'm getting sunburned through my clothes." She fans her shirt to prove her point, the sweat making it stick to her skin in a vary unflattering way. With a small smile and nod from Oliver, they make it back to Oliver's Mercedes.

Once inside, and before Oliver can start the engine, Felicity reaches over and to put her hand on his arm.

"I want to work on this Oliver— on our friendship, on our partnership, on being something more. I don't want to lose you."

With a small smile, Oliver takes her hand in his.

"You're not going to lose me."

AN: The point of this was to show how NOT over each other they are, and how they can't just walk away. Does it seem quick? One minute Ollie wants a clean break, the next he's completely unraveling without her? and vice-versa? Yes. That's the point. They're love-struck idiots.

I'll get more into their head-space in the next chapter.


End file.
